Buffalo pinned the first loss of the season on the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, and Bills wide receiver Amari Cooper was glad he made it back from a two-game injury absence to be a part of the 30-21 victory.
“This is the first time in like a long time that I’ve actually felt joy from winning this game,” Cooper said, “from just the way we played, from having so many guys on the team who are playmakers, and they come up and they show up when their number is called. Collectively as a group, it’s just amazing.
“It’s kind of a different place, too, Buffalo, compared to some of the other places I’ve been to. It’s a tight-knit group I would say. A lot of the guys go out together. They hang around each other 24/7, and it truly shows up on the field. It truly does.”
Winners of the past two Super Bowls, the Chiefs came to Buffalo with a 9-0 record. But the Bills joined Kansas City and the Detroit Lions as the NFL teams with nine victories in 2024.
Cooper joined Buffalo in a trade with the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 15. While the Bills improved to 9-2 on Sunday, the Browns dropped to 2-8 with a 35-14 loss to the New Orleans Saints.
“When you’re a kid and you’re dreaming of football, this is the stage you dream about,” Cooper said. “You don’t really dream about the games that aren’t meaningful. You’re dreaming about the meaningful games against the best teams. And so we were in it. It doesn’t come around that often, especially if you aren’t on a very good team. Any player who’s been in this league a long time, most of the guys haven’t always been on good teams. It’s just how it swings in this league.”
After Kansas City cut Buffalo’s lead to 23-21 with 7:53 to play, Bills quarterback Josh Allen scrambled 26 yards for a touchdown on a fourth-and-2 snap with 2:17 remaining to put the game out of reach. Allen completed 27-of-40 passes for 262 yards with one touchdown and one interception and ran 12 times for 55 yards and one touchdown on Sunday.
“The Josh Allen experience, with this magnitude, it’s been phenomenal, man,” Cooper said. “Like I said before, he’s a great player. The old adage ‘Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time situations,’ and that’s exactly what he did.”
In addition to Cleveland, Cooper has played for the Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys during his 10 NFL seasons. The former Alabama All-American said Buffalo is different.
“It kind of reminded me of – I was going to tell my friend this after the game – it’s like Little League, Pop Warner,” Cooper said. “It’s a Florida thing; it’s a Florida experience. But when you win the championship, you have to go up the road on your way to winning the national championship. And when you go up the road, the fans get crazier and crazier. I mean, they put rocks in glass bottles and shake them up, and everybody collectively gets so loud, and that’s what it reminded me of for some reason. But, yeah, the environment is phenomenal, for sure.”
A wrist injury had sidelined Cooper for two games before he returned on Sunday, playing 37 of Buffalo’s 73 offensive snaps.
Cooper had a 30-yard reception on the Bills’ third snap as Buffalo opened the contest with a touchdown drive. He made a toe-tapping catch for a 25-yard gain that survived a challenge by Kansas City in the second quarter. The catch put the Bills on the Chiefs 6-yard line, and Buffalo scored a touchdown on the next snap to take a 13-7 lead with 10:08 left in the first half.
Buffalo has an open date this week and will return to the field against the San Francisco 49ers at 7:20 p.m. CST Dec. 1 at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.
Cooper said the time off should be helpful to his continuing recovery from his injury.
“It will be really good,” Cooper said. “Every day matters when it comes to injuries and stuff in this league. Every day matters because the season isn’t forever.”
Cooper will enter December needing two receptions to become the 62nd player in NFL history with 700 and 140 receiving yards to become the 57th with 10,000.
